Last week we went to Jeff's work party, where the kids got to visit with Santa Claus and he even gave them an early present! It was a lot of fun and our Santa experiences just keep getting better every year...Madlyn is so excited about it, Cole was hesitant but did OK, and Cade, well...the picture speaks for itself.





I'm busily trying to finish up the last of our Christmas preparations (while playing nursemaid to sick children - Maddie & Cole both have fevers) and we're looking forward to a fun couple of weeks! This Sunday we're doing our LeCheminant Christmas Eve dinner & program early since Jeff's parents are leaving on Monday; Monday - Thursday will be spent here - we're trying to start some fun family traditions of our own; and then we're heading up to Clay Springs on Friday for my Grandma's Annual Christmas party, the weekend, and New Year's Eve celebrations. We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas holiday!!

Favorite Christmas Tradition

My great-grandmother Melissa Davis passed away right after Christmas when I was 18. My favorite Christmas tradition began lots of years before that (I'm not sure when it started) and still continues today. Grandma Davis was bedridden for as long as I can remember. I think I remember seeing her not in bed one time in my entire life, although I believe she became bedridden when I was a young girl. She lived with my great-aunt Alice, who so unselfishly took care of her for those many years. Almost every Sunday, our family would make the 1/2 mile walk down to Grandma Davis' to sing for her and visit. I can still remember her soft, tender voice and her sweet smile. One vivid memory for me is one Tuesday night, my parents were leaving to go to a meeting and they told my sister and me that it would be great if we could go visit Grandma & Alice. I think I was about 12 or 13 and my sister 2 years younger than me, so we were a little nervous about going by ourselves. But the thing that really bothered us was that it was dark, cold, and really windy. In the small town where I grew up, there weren't very many street lights and not very many houses even to light our way. Well, it was a challenge for us but we decided to head out on our own...it definitely put meaning to the term 'dark and stormy night'. We walked as fast as we could to get there, pulling our jackets tight around our shoulders, and bracing our bodies against the wind. I will never forget the feelings I had as Aunt Alice opened the door and the light streamed out into the night, and as we walked into that tiny, warm house. I don't remember what we talked about or even if they were happy to see us (although I'm sure they appreciated the visit) but I will always remember that it didn't seem so cold and dark as we trudged back up the hill to our house that night.

Anyways, I digress. At some point, my family started making a huge Christmas breakfast and taking it to Grandma & Aunt Alice on Christmas morning. It seems like I was almost always involved in taking the plates loaded with food and getting the opportunity to visit with them for a few minutes. Then we'd go home and enjoy our meal as a family, and in later years, my grandparents started joining us every year for breakfast. I got to go with my dad right before Grandma passed away and I don't think she ate anything that year. She wasn't doing well and we knew it wouldn't be long. Well, Grandma did pass away shortly after that, early in the year of 2000. But my parents continue to take breakfast to Aunt Alice and we still have my grandparents over too. It has become probably my favorite tradition, one that I am going to miss this year since we are staying here at our own home for Christmas (a first in our marriage). I guess I'll have to make a big breakfast anyway...does anyone want to come?

Prayer

So Cole has just recently learned how to say prayers all by himself, without any help. It is really fun to listen to what he says and it is always amazing to hear what he is thinking about, as well as Madlyn when she prays. And as you can suppose though, sometimes the prayers get a little repetitious. Sometimes Cole's prayers consist of opening, being thankful for the food, and then closing. Most often the kids say the blessings on our meals and we as parents say the morning & evening family prayers but sometimes they will get a turn at this. Well, Cole was saying our family prayer this morning and hear is an excerpt: "Thankful for the food...(pause)...not the food." I love how he caught this so quickly and it made me realize that he really does think about what he is saying.

Christmas Recital

On Wednesday night, my two music classes performed their first ever recital at my house. It was a first for me, as well as most of the kids. I thought it turned out quite well and was pleased at how well these children did. Here's the group all together when we finished; aren't they cute?


Here's a shot of my two singing elves: Maddie & Cole had a lot of fun (at least I hope) and did such a great job!

Hopefully next time I'll be a little more seasoned as a music teacher and it will be even better!!

New Bundle of Joy

Just wanted to say a quick congrats to my brother Colbran & his wife Stefanie, who gave birth to their 3rd child on Monday. Easton Cole joined Allison and Brooklyne and we are so excited for them!! Easton has had a rough life so far but is doing better every day. He was born 2 weeks early (8 lbs. - can you imagine if he went to 40 weeks?) and his lungs weren't quite ready yet so he was on a respirator until late Monday night. Stef says he looks good and is slowly getting weaned off of the oxygen. I wish I had a picture to post but since they live in Hurricane, UT and the hospital is in Las Vegas, NV they haven't been able to email any yet. He is a cutie though - I saw a picture on my sister-in-law's phone (I know, I'm a generation behind and don't even have a cell phone). Easton, you're in our thoughts & prayers and we can't wait to meet you!!! Love you guys!

Tag...I'm it!

For the first time ever, I've been tagged! And I'm actually pretty excited about it - thanks, Nicole! This one involves listing 6 interesting things about myself; are there even that many? I'll give it a try:

I went to culinary school for a semester. During my first semester at Ricks, I studied culinary arts. I took a Bakery class, Food Prep class, Food Sanitation class, and worked at the R Bakery. It was actually a lot of fun and I loved the people that I went to school with, but I changed my major for two reasons: I was going to be cooking for the rest of my life and I wanted to get a degree in something that I wouldn't naturally have to use forever; and the social life of a culinary arts major isn't the greatest (I think there were 3 guys in the whole program)! I am extremely grateful though, for the experiences I had and the things that I learned...although I'm sure Jeff wonders where all of the knowledge & skills I gained are! I am still obsessed with food though and love to bake and make food from scratch...good food makes any occasion better.

I played Cinderella in my high school's production of the musical. I really LOVED it and honestly wish that I could do more performing. My dream (beyond being a wife & mother) was to be an opera singer (I wanted to be Eponine in Les Miserables) and I used to really think that I had the ability but have since realized that it probably wasn't the most realistic dream for me. I think I am much better suited to teaching my little music class that I do for some of the kids in the neighborhood. These kids are so cute and while it is definitely a stretch for me (I've never been comfortable teaching anything), I really love it.

My maiden name is the same as my mother-in-law's. It's not as bad as it sounds. I'll never forget the look on Jeff's face when I told him what my last name was (I knew he was disappointed and we had only just met :)) but since I know quite a bit of my family's history, I was pretty sure that we weren't related on my dad's Davis side. I made sure I quizzed him about his family as far back as he knew though, because I have some Welsh Davis ancestors on my mom's side and figured that if we were related, it would be there. I knew from what he told me (and later his mom) that if there was a connection, it wasn't close enough to worry about. Sure enough, at our wedding luncheon (after the wedding), my maternal grandfather got to talking with my mother-in-law's sisters and found that we really are related. Uh-oh...actually, it's pretty far back and I'm sure a lot of people are just as closely related but just the fact that we know about it is kind of weird. Haha.

You wouldn't know it to look at me or my house, but I am a perfectionist. Things either get done perfectly or not at all at my house, and unfortunately 'not at all' happens way too frequently. Thus, I live in a never-ending state of guilt because I am not the perfect wife and mother that I would like to be. In theory, I know that I should lower my expectations a little bit and maybe I wouldn't get so overwhelmed but I really feel like I should be able to be those things, if I just tried a little harder. Maybe someday....

I always think that my house stinks and I'm frantic to fix it. Although my house is fairly clean and I empty the trash often, there is always something that stinks to me. I don't like lighting a candle just to mask a bad smell so I run through my house emptying trash cans, running the disposal in the kitchen, pouring Bleach in toilets, cleaning any possible dirty dish culprit, washing towels, spraying Febreze, etc. until the stench has been eliminated...and then I light the candle. Maybe you've heard me apologize for my stinky house...I think I must have a sensitive nose because no one else claims to smell anything (or maybe they're just being nice).

I love words and writing. I think the reason why I love to blog is it gives me a creative outlet for some of my thoughts...I definitely don't do it for the pictures (I'm terrible at taking pics). I am almost constantly arranging and rearranging words in my mind so that they sound good. I don't ever post a blog without rehearsing it in my mind for a few days before because I want it to be just perfect (see #4 above). That would explain why I don't post very often; there's just not enough time in my day for perfection in that area. I also love writing & office supplies. I could spend hours at OfficeMax or Staples just looking at all the cool pencils, pens, and paper that are there. Oh, but a pencil isn't a pencil unless it is a real wood #2 pencil, ya gotta love 'em.

Well, that's about it. Probably not the most interesting post you've ever read, but maybe it will give you a little insight into who I am. Thanks for reading. Oh yeah, and I tag...Katharine, Belle (when you're done with your thesis), Milla, and Mom (that means you have to start a blog)!!

I Take it All Back

In a previous post, I mentioned that I like to tease my wonderfully talented and smart husband about being a nerd. I often tell him that he is a nerd in the sense that he is academically inclined, without all the negative stereotypes that come from the word. Yesterday I came across a blog post with the subject of 'why geeks make the best dads'. I was laughing when I read it because it sounded somewhat familiar. When I read the comments, almost every wife said that her geek husband is an engineer of some sort; must not be coincidence that my "nerd" husband is a civil engineer. I decided that I, too wanted to post a tribute to my husband because he really is the best dad and husband ever. In order to be completely correct in my use of the word, I decided to look up 'nerd' in the dictionary. This is what Merriam-Webster gave me: nerd: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially: one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits. I TAKE IT ALL BACK.

While Jeff is, without a doubt, smart and devoted to intellectual pursuits (I don't know if I would say slavishly devoted, but he is devoted), he is definitely not unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept. I will give the example of our first "real" date together (we had met on a blind date the week before). When Jeff called me to ask me out, one of the first things he did was ask me how my brother's soccer game was. I had completely forgotten that I had told him I was going to it and I was very surprised that he had remembered. That was the very beginning of my realization that this man is very real and genuinely interested in the people around him. Jeff makes friends easily and people love to be around him. Socially inept? I don't think so.

While getting ready for this first date, I worried about whether I should wear a belt because I felt that Jeff was the kind of guy who would want a girl to wear a belt. But, I am definitely more casual than that and didn't want to misrepresent myself as a belt-wearing girl when I really am not one. :) I opted to wear the belt and honestly, I don't think Jeff even noticed. Needless to say, Jeff always dresses nicely and "in style". The thing about Jeff though, is that he doesn't dress for others and isn't into what's trendy or hip,and yet he always manages to look great; I really love that about him.

When I saw Jeff walk across my window before getting to the front door on that first date night, I saw how cute he really is. Cute doesn't do him justice though; from the beginning I have always thought that Jeff had a distinguished, polished, very handsome look and there is no room for any unattractiveness in there at all. So there.

So, honey, I take it all back. I will never call you a nerd again. I love your brilliant brain and your uncanny ability to solve problems, but I also LOVE your athleticism and your handiness (he really can build or fix anything), your playfulness and teasing (really, I do), your devotion to our family, your awesome capabilities as a father, and the tender, sensitive, and caring part of you. Thanks for being the world to me. I love you.